Chicago is home to 3 million residents and 29 Fortune 500 companies.

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Even in Africa, four in ten people now have a mobile phone.

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Only 22% of the cars produced in Britain are sold there and 14% of those bought in Britain are made there.

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America is home to more Wal-mart employees (1.3m) than high-school teachers.

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14% of Rolls-Royce owners also own a private jet.

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More than 30 million iPhones have been sold so far, with 5.2 million sold in the quarter ending June 2009.

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Among the OECD club of 30 mainly rich countries, only 3 - Iceland, Norway and America - now have retirement ages higher than 65.

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In its early days, the Diners Club card took a hefty 7% cut of the tab from restaurants that accepted it.

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In Western Europe, 80% of car journeys are below 60 km, and 20% of cars - about 20 million vehicles - never go any further.

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Apple accounts for 69% of online music sales - and 35% of all music sales (more than Wal-mart) - in America.

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A woman will own an average of 111 handbags in her lifetime.

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Facebook currently has more than 65 million mobile users.

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Currently about 1.2 million subscribers worldwide access broadband internet via satellite.

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About 3% of the world’s population lives abroad: a share that has hardly grown in recent years, despite a jump in absolute numbers.

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A study of mergers and acquisitions in America in 1985-2001 found that deals done during a recession generated more than 15% more return to shareholders than those that took place during a boom.

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87 percent of all Americans can be uniquely identified using only three bits of information: ZIP code, birthdate, and sex.

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Globally, people spend around $230 billion on beauty products every year. Of this figure, $40 billion go towards shampoo purchases.

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There are over 13,000 McDonald’s restaurants in the US, or about 1 for every 23,000 Americans.

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An extra 10 phones per 100 people in a typical developing country boosts GDP growth by 0.8 percentage points.

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Sales of mobile phones were 10% lower in the 2nd quarter of 2009 than in the same period last year, but sales of smart-phones were up by nearly 15%.

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In the 6 months after the collapse of Lehman Brothers in September 2008, there were just 2 IPOs in America.

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75 of Nestle's 456 factories have a halal certification.

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A study of cheating among graduate students found that 56% of business students had cheated, compared with 47% in other disciplines.

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There have been at least 124 bank-centred crises around the world since 1970, most of which were preceded by booms in house prices and stockmarkets, large capital inflows and rising public debt.

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Between 1956 and 1981 an average of 24 firms dropped out of the Fortune 500 list every year. Between 1982 and 2006 that number jumped to 40.

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More than 4 billion mobile handsets are now in use worldwide, three quarters of them in the developing world.

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Of the 1000 biggest German companies, only 170 are listed - the rest are family owned.

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There are nearly 200 million internet addresses in use, which generate more than $2.5 billion a year in renewal fees.

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The number of additional deaths attributable to climate change every year are estimated to be 150,000.

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India's prolific and low cost film industry churns out some 12,000 movies a year.

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90.6% of Britain's trains ran on time in 2008 - although the description of punctual includes trains up to 10 minutes late.

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Despite the recession, Americans started 530,000 businesses a month in 2008.

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For each $100,000 in unexpected gains at the stockmarket in the 1990s, the typical shareholder retired seven months earlier.

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In the US, lifetime gross earnings of male graduates are, on average, nearly $370,000 higher than those of non-graduates.

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European car factories are capable of churning out 4 million more cars than the market can take, even in a good year like 2007.

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400 million Indians still do not have electricity.

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On average, shares in China trade at 31 times trailing earnings, double the global average.

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Second Life is currently populated by no more than 84,000 avatars at a time.

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Netflix shipped its 2 billionth DVD in April 2009.

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The finance industry's share of corporate profits in America peaked at an incredible 41% in 2007.

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The total medical costs of obesity surpass $200 billion a year in America, which is higher than the bill for smoking.

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India slashed tarfiffs on imports from an average of 90% in 1991 to 30% in 1997.

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